SCOTUS Sets 11/20 For Prop. 8 Certioari Decision

On November 20th, the 9 Justices of the United States Supreme Court will meet in their chambers  to decide the fate of Proposition 8, the November 2008 ballot measure which attempted to amend the California constitution to remove the previously granted right to marry to same-sex couples. The technical term is whether they will grant certioari to the heterosexual supremacists who have appealed their repeated losses in federal courts to the highest court in the land. If there are not four Justices who want to hear the case, then the lower ruling will stand and soon afterwards marriage equality will be restored to the state of California. If there are at least four Justices who want to hear the case, then certioari will be granted and eventually a briefing schedule will be determined and oral arguments will occur. Then a final decision on the constitutionality of Proposition 8 will be issued by June 2013.

The Justice's certioari decision in the case, now called Hollingsworth v. Perry, is not expected to be announced until Monday November 26th. Many observers think there is a reasonable chance that the Court will decide not to hear the case, since the lower court ruling in the 9th Circuit is relatively narrow, and there are several other LGBT-related cases pending before the Court as will this term.

In addition to a certioari decision on Proposition 8, the Justices will also decide on which of the many DOMA-related cases it will hear. The Justices are widely expected to grant at least one of these appeals, especially since the Justice Department is also asking them to. We'll know the answer on November 26!